Friedrich Merz: the unloved millionaire at the gates of the chancellery

In his hometown of Brilon, Germany, millionaire and chancellor favorite Friedrich Merz is trying, glass of beer in hand, to tone down his haughty image and give popular momentum to his campaign.

On Sunday, this pilot and owner of a private jet invited the very popular Bavarian conservative leader Markus Söder to his small town in the west of the country for a ” breakfast “ with beer, white pudding and pretzel, sure to please its guest.

“I will stick to the fact (…) that I am here at home, that I am here and that I seek contact with people as much as with our wonderful environment”he said in front of a thousand supporters.

A rare expression of emotion coming from this 69-year-old MP, former unfortunate rival of Angela Merkel, at a time when her Christian Democratic camp remains, certainly, at the top of the polls but is stagnating around 30%, one month from the early legislative elections of February 23.

A recent Insa study even sees it falling below this symbolic bar, to 29%.

“Proud of Germany again”

This Catholic, married for more than 40 years to a lawyer and father of three children, preaches a return to traditional values ​​and a tougher approach to immigration in order to contain the rise of the Alternative for Germany (AfD, far right) , in second position in the polls.

He spoke out against parity between women and men in a government under his leadership and his party said it wanted to cancel the law of Olaf Scholz’s government aimed at facilitating gender change.

But he is “the CDU’s response to the success of the AfD”who seduces with his positions « anti-woke » and hostile to foreigners, analyzes the weekly Die Zeit.

A convinced Atlanticist, he is also committed to opening “a new chapter” with the United States of Donald Trump, while pleading for a « Europe union » facing the new American president.

One of the CDU campaign slogans – “a Germany we can be proud of again” after two successive recessions in the country – also recalls that of Trump aiming to “make America great again”.

Since taking the reins of the conservative party in January 2022, Friedrich Merz, known for his mood swings, has tried to erase his image as a man of the past, driven by a thirst for revenge against Angela Merkel.

Rejected in 2002 by the ex-chancellor (2005-2021) from the strategic position of president of the parliamentary group, he converted to finance in 2009, working for BlackRock, one of the largest asset managers in the world. .

Objective: “competitiveness”

Social Democrats like to point “inexperience” of this elected official who has not held any government function, serving a series of mandates in the German Bundestag and the European Parliament (1989-1994).

A study by the Forsa institute in November, however, revealed that 47% of respondents trusted him to revive the economy, compared to 16% for the social democrat Olaf Scholz.

“Every day, every decision of my future government will include only one question + is this good for the competitiveness of our industry? + We must restore the competitiveness of this country”the conservative asserted on Tuesday during the Davos Economic Forum in Switzerland.

This liberal’s recipes: reduce business taxes and bureaucracy and tighten the rules of “citizen’s allowance”a benefit paid to the unemployed, in order to force them to re-enter the job market.

In terms of migration policy, he advocates the expulsion of rejected asylum seekers and criminals, accompanied by a reduction in aid to migrants.

He has sometimes used rhetoric similar to that of the AfD, even if he excludes any alliance with this party, describing in particular “little pashas” originating from “the Arab space” the alleged perpetrators of clashes in Berlin in 2022.

The same year, he accused the Ukrainians who had taken refuge in Germany after the Russian invasion, especially women and children, of practicing “social tourism” to pocket benefits, before apologizing.

Friedrich Merz is nonetheless one of the most fervent declared supporters of military aid to kyiv.